REVIEW: Wacom Cintiq 13HD

Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display

For the past month I’ve been using a Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display. Previously I had been using the Wacom Intuos 4, and I was a Intuos 3 user before that.

Like many, I was excited about the idea of having a display built into the tablet because I thought it would be great for editing images. It seemed like a brilliant idea, so I was excited when my review unit arrived.

During my testing I tried it both with a MacBook Pro (pre-ThunderBolt) and my Windows 7 based Alienware Aurora systems. I started off by doing a calibration as the default picture quality on the display was terrible.

Overall I found the setup and ease of use on the Mac to be very good. Things just worked for the most part, but on Windows the drivers didn’t seem to be very good. Despite downloading the latest driver off the web, my Drobo Pro connected via iSCSI stopped working when I installed the tablet driver. Over a month later I haven’t been able to figure out what it did, so I’ve had to resort to using my Drobo in the very slow USB mode.

I eventually got it working on my PC, but it certainly was less stable than my Intuos 4 (in USB mode).

Overall Impressions

It’s times like this that I’m glad that I can review products because this is one that I found to be very disappointing. Perhaps it is because I use a Asus Zenbook with a touch screen as my daily work laptop, but I found the display both lacking in color depth and the touch performance to be mediocre. The pictures always show vivid images, but the viewing angle of this device isn’t very good so you have to be looking at it fairly head on to get the best picture quality.

Another practical oddity that you never think about until you own one these is that you can’t just drag your pen to objects on your other displays. You must first tap a display toggle button, otherwise your pen is locked to the Cintiq or your other displays. While this logically makes sense, in practice I found it hard to get used to.

Ironically I found that I didn’t really like running Photoshop on the Cintq because on the Mac the toolbar would default to the non Citique display so I kept having to toggle back and forth between displays to use the menu. While I could move the Mac’s menu to the Cintiq, that isn’t where I wanted it for all of my other apps.

Windows applications are self contained so they worked much better with the Cintq, but the tiny display was too small to host all of Photoshop. As a result, I found myself leaving the main app on one display and dragging just the window to the Cintq. This lead me with the Mac problem where I had to toggle to switch my cursor back and forth between the Citniq and my other displays. This was too cumbersome and annoying.

Perhaps the most shocking discovery was that for precise photo editing, the small display was challenging to use and my hands kept getting in the way. Sure, I could do nice demos of how things work but in practice I hated editing photos directly on the Citniq display. This lead me to use the Cintiq as a regular tablet, rather than something I can edit with.

Conclusion

Due to the previously obscene prices of the Cintiq’s, I never bothered to buy one and I couldn’t get one to review. After being used to Retina iPad’s, iPhone’s, and Windows 8 touch devices my bar about what I expect from a color display and touch screen is high. The Cintiq display failed to meet those expectations. It felt a bit like an outdated display with only pen technology to control it when my fingers were expecting to be able to do both touch and pen (like a Samsung Note or Windows Surface Pro).

I’m sure there will be fan boys who scream bloody murder at my review, and there’s probably sketch artist who will appreciate the Cintiq’s more than me. However, I ended up either not using it, or using it only as a tablet during a portion of my review period.

My advice is to save your money and get a Wacom Intuos 5. You’ll get pen performance that is roughly the same as the Cintiq, but you’ll have money to buy a good display like the NEC PA Series. This is basically what I’m doing now, but I anxiously await the near future when all my displays have capacitive touch support so the Cintiq won’t make any sense. Even today, a device like the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix gives you a touch display that is better than a Cintiq with a tablet & laptop included for only a few hundred dollars more.

Where to order

Click here to order the Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display at B&H web site, or go for the Wacom Intuos 5 instead.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Wacom Intuos 4 Review
• Choosing The Right Display Calibration Device
• NEC PA Series Monitors
• NEC PA242W

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

I was provided with a loaner tablet which I returned after publishing this article.

REVIEW: Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless Digital Tablet–vs– Wacom Intuos 3 (2011 Edition by Ron Martinsen)

In March of 2009, my friend David Pitcher did a guest blog article entitled Wacom Intuos 4 –vs- Wacom Intuos3 and 3DConnexion SpaceExplorer combination that has been a very popular.

Until recently I was still using my Intuos 3, so I couldn’t comment about the Intuos4, so I had little reason to update it. While I had heard good things about the Intuos4, I had two medium Intuos3 tablets and saw little reason to upgrade.

Recently I upgraded to the Intuos4 wireless and now I’m kicking myself for waiting for so long!

Out of Box First Impression

The first thing I noticed about the Intuos4 over my Intuos3, is that it “just worked”. My Intuos3 would just stop working – a lot, so I’d have to shake my Wacom mouse with the pen tracking it to get it to work again. I also had some apps by Topaz Labs, onOne Software, ColorByte ImagePrint, and more that simply wouldn’t let me click certain objects with my Wacom – I had to use a separate mouse. This left me frustrated, so I only used it for fine detail work in Photoshop. 

When working in Photoshop, my Intuos3 worked well most of the time (more so on the Mac than the PC), but when it failed it was frustrating. My Intuos4 hasn’t had any of the aforementioned issues and feels much more precise. As a result, I find myself using it MUCH more. 

Where’s the Mouse?

One thing I was very disappointed about with the wireless tablet was the absence of a mouse, as I used the Wacom mouse on my Intuos3 nearly full-time. I find right-clicking with stylus (3 or 4) to be maddening, so I want a mouse. I now have to resort to plugging in a separate mouse presumably because Wacom engineers realized that the 4 is so much better than the 3 that you wouldn’t use the mouse. That's not the case for me, but I do find myself using the Intuos4 pen 90% of the time for “mouse activities”, rather than being “just” a Photoshop brush in the past.

Some say give up the mouse for a week and you’ll never go back, but I just haven’t had luck with that process. I want my mouse.

Whew, thank goodness there’s still a wire option

My primary PC where I do most of my work is getting a bit old. As a result its bluetooth support is sketchy at best, so I find myself just leaving the Intuos4 plugged in all of the time. On my MacBook Pro it works great so I used it wirelessly most of the time and only connect it to charge. I’m really happy for this design (versus just requiring a battery change), as it allows me to use the power source  of my choice.

Living with the Intuos4

After I got settled in with 4, I immediately fell in love with the new controls. I never, ever, used the side buttons on the Intuos3 as I could never remember what they did (especially since it could change from product to product). Now I find myself using the hand button a long so I can scroll (which used to be a mouse only thing for me), and the touch ring works beautifully in Photoshop. I also really appreciate the help for more details about how my tablet is currently configured.

David Pitcher’s guest blog article entitled Wacom Intuos 4 –vs- Wacom Intuos3 and 3DConnexion SpaceExplorer combination did a great job of explaining what all of the controls do, so I won’t repeat that here. I will say that in practice I mostly just use the touch ring, the hand button, and the help most often.

Smaller size isn’t a problem

One of my concerns about reviewing this unit is that I was coming from a medium Intuos3 which had a much larger work surface area. The surface of the Intuos4 wireless is 5x8” (12.7 x 20.3cm) versus 6.25" x 10.67" (158.8 x 271.0mm) for my Intuos3, so I expected to really feel boxed in. However, for photo editing this hasn’t been an issue as the improved edge to edge support (even in my complex dual screen setup with landscape and portrait orientation displays) has worked flawlessly. I don’t find myself picking up my pen and re-centering it as I did with the Intuos3, so it’s been easier for me to hit my targets on the first try. It just subconsciously feels much better.

People doing freehand drawing might prefer the larger surface or the Cintiq, but for photography this size hasn’t been a problem at all. With that said, for my dual display configuration, I wouldn’t want to go smaller than this size.

Wireless vs Wired

Personally I’ve found that I prefer to keep the tablet on my desk instead of my lap for photography editing. I’m not twisting my tablet around like someone who would be drawing would do, so I don’t think wireless is necessary for me. Bluetooth was so buggy on my older Windows system that I just gave up, and on the Mac I still found myself keeping it in one spot with it wired up.

The beauty here is that if you can afford the wireless version you can have the best of both worlds, which is why I decided to go for this design. If I ever have a need or desire to go wireless, I can. If I don’t, I can just stay wired. If you want to save a little money though, you can consider getting the medium wired version.

Other Benefits

Lefties will rejoice at the new design and lap users will appreciate the lighter weight in addition to the lack of wires. These improvements along with the great controls and precision make it a real pleasure to use.

Conclusion

Now that I’m used to my Intuos4, I’m struggling to use my 3 at my second office. I’m going to have to get another 4 as I can’t live without its reliability, precision, and wonderful side controls. These suckers are expensive, but they are totally worth it once you add it to your photography editing workflow.

If you have an Intuos3, I give my highest recommendation on upgrading to the Intuos4 – it’s totally worth it! Wireless or not and size are personal preferences, but a medium wireless is a safe bet for most.

If you don’t have a tablet, then I strongly urge you to get one if you use Photoshop. It just makes life so much easier when doing masks, healing, cloning, etc…. At the very least you should order it from B&H and try it out. You can always return it if you aren’t sure about it, but odds are you wouldn’t dream of returning it.

Click here to buy your Intuos4 now and support this blog while you are at it – it doesn’t cost you a penny. You can also click here to learn more on Wacom’s website.

Further Reading

David Pitcher’s guest blog article entitled Wacom Intuos 4 –vs- Wacom Intuos3 and 3DConnexion SpaceExplorer combination is a great read as well.

Disclosure

Wacom provided me with an evaluation tablet to review, and I may make a commission if you make purchases using  links in this article.